"Finally, I suspect that it is by entering that deep place inside us where our secrets are kept that we come perhaps closer than we do anywhere else to the One who, whether we realize it or not, is of all our secrets the most telling and the most precious we have to tell." Frederick Buechner

Come in! Come in!

"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a Hope-er, a Pray-er, a Magic Bean buyer; if you're a pretender, come sit by my fire. For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!" -- Shel Silverstein

Six votes of separation

The votes were 44 for and three against with two abstentions in the
House of Bishops, 148 for and 45 against in the House of Clergy, and 132
for and 74 against in the House of Laity.

The measure needed two-thirds majorities in each of the synod’s three houses.

If you're keeping track, this means that the measure lost by six votes in the House of Laity.

Six votes.

I'm certain the blogosphere and other media will be filled with post mortems and analysis of the vote. I understand that there was an electronic ballot and that the names of everyone who voted - and how they voted - will be published in a few days. More analysis will follow, no doubt.

Depending on your source of information, three themes seem to emerge to explain the vote.

1. Archbishop Rowan Williams mucked up the works by offering unworkable compromises and stalling the process.
2. The Appleby Amendment was a little bit of discrimination that proved a little bit too much for some progressives and many voted it down.
3. The conservatives did what they rarely do - on either side of the Pond: They organized. And, they were effective.

Bottom line: The vote on women in the Episcopacy in the Church of England will not - can not - come up again for another five years.

Justin Welby, ABC-elect

That will be five years into the episcopacy of Justin Welby as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. He'll be up to the lace in his cotta with issues concerning the ordination of LGBT people and the blessing of the covenants made between couples of the same gender.

If you've been paying attention to what scholars call the "intersectionality" of justice issues, the convergence of issues of sexuality and gender ought not come as a huge surprise. Sexism and homophobia often walk hand in hand in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Martin Luther King, Jr., famously noted that "justice delayed is justice denied". It should be noted that controversy delayed is NOT controversy denied. Make no mistake: This will not bring peace in the Church of England.

Six votes does not a mandate make.

This can only be described as a Pyrrhic victory. The heavy toll this will take on the spirit and spirituality of the Church of England will be exceeded only by the loss of credibility it will have with a generation of British people who are already leaving the CofE in droves.

Six negative votes have become six votes of separation, driving a wedge further between the Body of Christ and the people it is supposed to serve.

It's a sad day on the church's calendar.

In addition to the news of the CofE vote, yesterday's calendar also held a bit of irony. Pauli Murray, civil rights lawyer and Episcopal
priest, was born on November 20, 1910. She became the first African American person
to earn a doctorate at Yale Law School in 1965. Murray also co-founded
the National Organization for Women.

The Rev'd Dr. Pauli Murray

In 1977, Murray made history again
when she became ordained as an Episcopal priest. Indeed, she presided at her first Eucharist in the same chapel where her grandmother, then a slave, had been baptized.

Murray was also a poet who once wrote, "Hope is a song in a weary throat."

There are many in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion who are weary of this 20 year battle for justice. There will be five more years of hard work to tear down the walls of sexism and misogyny that have obstructed of the work of the Holy Spirit who calls men and women to the councils and corridors of the Church.

This past Sunday, we heard Jesus warn that the end is only the beginning of the birth pangs. This may have been a confounding news flash to the 12 male disciples, but any woman who has ever been pregnant not only knows but has lived the truth of His words. Which is why women are so uniquely qualified for positions of leadership in the church.

This is not the end. Far from it. It is just the beginning of the inevitability of justice.

That is a song of hope worth waiting for, no matter how weary we get from the struggle for justice.

I don't understand why what Paul (or someone claiming to be Paul) wrote in the letters to Timothy carries more weight than what the gospels record our Lord said and did.

On my wall hangs a photo of Presiding Bishop Katherine in England, in procession, gracefully carrying her mitre in her hands because she was asked to not wear it.

I think the idea of providing alternate male bishops for those who cannot or will not accept the authority of a woman bishop was ill-conceived, and may well have effected the House of Laity vote. I think the next vote, whenever the heck that comes, will be a yes-or-no. One is either a bishop in the church, or one is not. In the meantime, I grieve for my sisters and brothers in the CoE.

Reminds me of the vote in 1973 that precipitated the Philly Eleven and the final vote in GC 76 that passed with flying colors. By the time that the Gen Synod gets back to it, the issue will be moot and not a fight.

Laurel - I think this vote is worthy of some "civil disobedience" the way we ordained 11 women "irregularly" in TEC. I don't know how the CofE canons read but if it uses the male pronoun to mean "humankind" then, I say, foist them on their own petard. Call them on their own language. That's ultimately how we argued it in TEC for the ordination of women.

It's ridiculous to the extreme to think that vocation is limited by gender. God calls whom God will. How arrogant to think that "men" can determine that vocation.

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About Me

I am a joyful Christian who claims the fullness of the Anglican tradition of being evangelical, Anglo-Catholic, charismatic, orthodox and radical. Since 1991, my canonical residence has been the Diocese of Newark, where I was a member of the Women's Commission (since 1993), the Department of Missions (2 terms), The Commission on Ministry (1 term), The Standing Committee (4 years, one as President). I served as an elected Deputy to General Convention in 2000, 2003, and 2006. I have served as a board member of Integrity, USA, and as a founding member of Claiming The Blessing. I am national Convener of The Episcopal Women's Caucus, and am now member of the national board of RCRC. I attended the Lambeth Conference in 1998 and 2008 representing EWC. I graduated in May 2008 from Drew with my doctorate in Pastoral Care and Counseling and was Proctor Fellow at EDS, Spring Semester 2011. I am a GOE reader. I consult and counsel at Canterbury Pastoral Care Center in Harbeson, DE.

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Quotes from some of my favorite Bloggers and Friends

"How can you initiate someone and then treat them like a half-assed baptized?" - The Rt Rev Barbara Harris

Those who know the deep acceptance and love that come with healing and forgiveness can lose the defensive veneer that wants to shut out other sinners. They discover that covering their hair or hiding their tears or hoarding their rich perfume isn't the way that the beloved act, even if it makes others nervous. Katharine Jefferts Schori at Southwarck Cathedral, UK June 13, 2010

"If you have never been called a defiant, incorrigible, impossible woman … have faith … there is yet time." ~ From Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

If you want to protect Holy Wedlock, by all means padlock the church door whenever guys who love Judy Garland come-a-knocking. But if you want to protect marriage push for a constitutional amendment to ban divorce.

And . . . If that wasn't outrageous enough for you, there's this:

From where I sit, the entire Republican Party should head to OZ – looking for a brain, a heart and a pair of testicles.Helen Philipot

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Thomas MertonEileen the Episcopalifem

"I can only conclude that the social contract that binds us all together in such a single unlikely country is greater than each of us who make it up." Counterlight.

"There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity . . .You can smell it. It smells like death."Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Lord, take me where You want me to go, let me meet who You want me to meet, tell me what You want me to say, and keep me out of Your way. Amen.Fr. Mychal Judge, OFM, Chaplain, NYFD, First official recorded victim 9/11 attack

"You can call the dogs in, wet the fire, and leave the house. The hunt's over." James Carville after the 2nd Presidential Debate

"Literalism in any form is little more than pious hysteria."John Shelby Spong, Bishop of Newark, retired

"Start where you are.Use what you have.Do what you can."Arthur Ashe.

"Ask for help when you need it. Take it graciously when it comes. Try not to be disappointed when it doesn't. Be thankful for something every day. Do something for someone else as a way of saying thank you for your life."John R. Souza